Morning was upon the town of Appleloosa. Jacob was already up, doing his job. It had been nearly a week since he had arrived, and he was getting used to the routine. Every morning, he would get up, eat breakfast, then start working. Today he was helping Braeburn carry the apples to the marketplace to sell them. Alothough they hadn't started out very well, they were now getting along nicely.

"...and so I greeted them, and I took 'em on a tour around the town." Continued Braeburn. As Jacob had come to know, Braeburn had alot of relatives, mist of them in other towns and cities. Right now he was talking about when he met his cousin Applejack.

"...those were the good days, yep." Braeburn sighs.

Jacob inquisitively looks at Braeburn. "What do you mean good days?" He asks.

Braeburn's expression turns stern. "It's none of your apples."

"What happened?" Jacob asks.

"What happened!? I'll tell ya what the hay happened. You humans-"

"Well if it isn't Braeburn! Here to sell me some more apples?" A voice interjects. Jacob and Braeburn see a slightly fat man walking towards them.

"Sure am, Sawyer." Braeburn casually replies, as if he wasn't mad at all a second ago.

"Well it's good to see you again. Apple prices have been on the rise these days, and you're one of my top suppliers!" Sawyer exclaims. "Who's your friend there, if you don't mind me asking?"

"This here's Joseph. He's been workin' at the barn for Jim." Braeburn answers.

"Nice to meet you, Joseph! My name's Sawyer, and I sell apples." The jolly man shakes Jacob's hand.

"Nice to meet you too." Jacob responds, slightly startled from the brisk hand shake.

"Now how about we get down to business? How do you want for the apples?" Sawyer asks, his smile never fading.

"These apples are pretty darn good quality, Sawyer. You reckon you can buy 'em for half a bit per apple?" Braeburn bargains.

Sawyer thinks for a moment. Then he picks an apple, examining it. "How many apples do you have?" Saywer asks Braeburn.

"Hundred-and-fifty-eight in this cart, and another forty in the barrel that Joseph's carryin'." Braeburn tells Sawyer.

"I'll take your word, then." Sawyer replies, and pulls out a leather bag. After counting the bits, he hands them to Braeburn, who sizes the bag then ties it around his neck.

"Just put the apples behind my stall, like always." Sawyer says to the two.

Braeburn just nods, and heads into the market. Jacob follows Braeburn closely. Braeburn pulls the cart behind a small fruit stand, which Jacob guessed was Sawyer's. After Jacob puts down his load, They leave the market.

"So, is Sawyer like your main business partner?" Jacob asks on the way.

"He's our only business partner." Braeburn grunts. The rest of the walk continued in silence. As they approached the barn, Mike is waiting for them at the entrance.

"How'd it go, fellas?" He asks them.

"Sold 'em for half a bit each." Braeburn says with a smile.

Mike whistles. "Whoah, that's quite a bargain ya' got there." He says.

Braeburn unties the bag from his neck, and tosses it to Mike. Mike opens the bag, and counts it's contents.

"Hey Jim! Come take a look at the bargain Braeburn made!" Mike excitingly hollers. Jim walks out of the barn, and his eyes nearly bulge at the sight of the pouch.

"We could live off of that stuff fer half the year!" Jim exclaims.

"Yep, I think we've hit the motherload this time, Jim." Mike chuckles.

The rest of the day was taken off, mostly because Jim was toi excited about their profit to do anything. Jacob decided to spend the rest of the day walking around town. Due to the busy season, he hadn't had a chance to see the rest of the town. Jacob took his pouch, filled with twenty bits, and his pistol with him. He figured he wouldn't need his bulletproof armor and rifle.

The town hadn't changed much since he arrived. As Jacob walked around, he noticed the ponies again. They still walked around the place with depressed looks, either carrying something or following a human. Jacob shrugged off the feeling. He couldn't spend the day worrying about some crazy feeling. This was probably going to be the only day off he would ever get this year. He had to enjoy it.

Around afternoon, Jacob rwturned to the barn. Braeburn and Jim were already there.

"Where's Mike?" Jacob asks.

"Out in the field, plowin' the field." Jim replies.

"Already?" Jacob asks in disbelief.

"He's always about work. If he ain't workin' he's either eating or sleeping." Braeburn says to Jacob.

"I think we should celebrate the bountiful harvest, fellas." Says Jim. "How 'bout something other than apples for dinner?"

"Seriously?" Exclaims Jacob.

"Dead serious." Jim gleefully answers. "Bought a little cake while you were out."

Jacob fistpumps the air.

"I see ya told him 'bout the cake." Mike says from the doorway.

"Finally decide it's time to take a break?" Jim jokes.

"Hey, if it fer my ass-haulin' we probably wouldn't have had that harvest." Mike says with a grin.

"Reckon so. Now let's celebrate a good year of apple-growin'!" Yells Jim.

After the celebration, Jacob hops onto his bed. It had been a good season.

Maybe farm life won't be so bad after all. thinks Jacob. There's no way that the UN can find me anyways.

"Have fun?" Braeburn asks Jacob.

"Yep." Jacob replies.

"Most of the season's we don't get this much apples. Jim and Mike say we got lucky, but I think that yer helpin' hand had a part in it." Braeburn says with a grin.

A thought went through Jacob's head.

"Hey, by the way... what were you going to say at the marketplace before Sawyer came?" Jacob asks, interested as to what Braeburn was going to say.

"That's not funny." Braeburn says with a scowl.

"I'm not joking." Jacob's response made Braeburn sit up. Jacob was already sitting up, staring at him with a serious look on his face.

"You can't be serious."

"I am." Jacob annoyingly says.

Two can play at this game. "How can you not know?" Braeburn asks.

"Gee, thats a toughie. Maybe because I don't know how I got here in the first place!" Jacob snaps.

After a moment of silence, Braeburn finally speaks. "You're serious." Is all he can say.

"Yes, that's what I've been trying to fucking say!" Jacob yells.

Braeburn stares at Jacob for a while. "It all started nearly a year ago," He begins, "Humans came out of nowhere, and conquered the Crystal Empire, which is a neighbouring kingdom. They killed all of the ponies there. Then they came after us. They had weapons, guns they called them, that outmatched our weapons completely. We never stood a chance." Braeburn's face was filled with anger. "Your kind took over our kindom and enslaved us! And you act as if it's some silly-"

"I'm sorry." Jacob says.

Braeburn is startled by what he says. "You're what?" He asks.

"I'm sorry I ever asked. I didn't know." Jacob says gloomily.

"So you didn't know?" Braeburn confirms.

"Yes." Jacob was stunned. He didn't want to belive it, couldn't belive it.

"How can you not know?" Braeburn asks again.

"I don't even know how I came here. One second I was on Earth, next I'm here." Jacob replies with a blank face.

"A dimentional rift." Braeburn whispers.

"What?" Jacob asks.

"You got caught in a dimentional rift. I've heard if them before. They say the chances of it happening are next to none." Braeburn answers.

"Well lucky me." Jacob sarcastically says.

"So then you didn't know about this?" Braeburn asks.

"Not until now." Jacob confidently answers.

"Joseph-"

"My name's nit Joseph." Jacob cuts off," It's Jacob."

"Why did you lie about your name?" Braeburn questions.

"I didn't think I could trust anyone yet. But now I know I can trust you." Jacob says, a smile slowly appearing on his face.

Braeburn returns the smile. Then his face grows dark. "Our town has it lucky. At least the people here recognise us as sentinent beings. It only gets worse in other towns."

"Not if I haveu anything to say about it." Jacob says with determination.

Braeburn looks at him with a shocked expression plastered to his face. "Why would you even care about our species? You have no reason to help us!" He exclaims.

"Your kind is suffering what we did. For me, that's enough." Jacob simply says.

"Better not tell any other humans that, you'll get yerself killed." Braeburn says with a chuckle.

"I don't intend to." Jacob replies.

"Do you even know what to do? Where you should start? Do you even have a plan?" Braeburn asks.

"For once in my life, I don't have a clue as to what I should do." Jacob sadly replies.

"Oh." Braeburn looked a little crestfallen. But then, his expression lightens up. "I know! You need to find the Bearers of the Elememts of Harmony!" He gleefully exclaims.

"The Elements of Harmony?" Jacob questions.

"Right, I guess you wouldn't know avout them. None of the humans here even have a clue as to who they are." Braeburn says. "The Elements of Harmony are six artifacts that were used to vanquish evil and restore order to the kingdom many times. The Elements are each wielded by a pony called the Bearer of Harmony. The Elements of Harmony are honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty, and magic. My cousin Applejack is actually the Bearer of the Element of Honesty."

Jacob recalled Braeburn talking about her. "Do you have any idea as to where they are?" He asks Braeburn.

Braeburn slumps down on his bed. "No. When your kind attacked, they spread out across the country. Thankfully your kind doesn't know about the Elements, or they would be hunted down." Braeburn suddenly pauses, and Jacob gives him a questioning look. "Wait, I remember! I heard a rumor that Rarity, the Bearer of the Element if Generosity, is hiding in the city of Manehatten."

"Manehatten?" If the situation wasn't so grim, Jacob would have bust out laughing.

"Yeah, why?" Braeburn asks Jacob.

"Oh nothing. It's just that we have a city in our world called Manhatten." Jacob says, surpressing his laughter.
"Huh. Creepy coincidence. When do you plan on leaving?" Braeburn cheerfully says.

Hearing that a human is helping him is giving him alot more hope than I expected. Jacob marvels. "I plan on leaving in the morning." Jacob declares.

"In the mornin'!? Don't ya wanna spend some time preparin' for your journey?" Braeburn asks.

"I'll buy some food on my way out of the town. I'll need a map, though..." Jacob tells Braeburn.

"You won't need to worry about that." Braeburn replies with a grin. Jacob watches as Braeburn pulls a map out from underneath his bed. "When you humans invaded, you either confisticated or burnt all the maps to discourage us from escaping. I got lucky enough to hide one." Braeburn proudly proclaims.

Jacob takes the map from Braeburn, and examines it. With some help from Braeburn, he finds Appleloosa and Manehattan.

"This would be a lot more easier with my compass working." Jacob half-jokingly says.

"I have one." Braeburn siply states. He digs around in his bed, then pulls out a gem with runes engraved on it.

"How can that possibly work as a compass?" Jacob curiously asks.

"Watch." Is all Braeburn says. Jacob watches in amazment as Braeburn lists up the gem begins to glow, and a small beam of light shines from it. "That way is north." Braeburn says matter-of-factly.

Jacob was stunned. "How... did you do that?" Jacob manages to ask.

"I didn't do anything. It's a magical gem." Braeburn answers flatly.

Magic!? So now there's magic!? Jacob thinks to himself. He takes the gem from Braeburn.

"Good night, and good luck in the mornin' partner." Braeburn says with a yawn.

Jacob feels a yawn escape his lips, and decided to go to sleep too. I'm in real deep. Was his last thought.

Author's Note

The plot's getting deeper, isn't it? Will the rumors be true? Will Rarity really be in Manehatten? Stay tuned for the next chapter!